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UK Space Policy

: My hon. Friend makes an important point about the project being commercially driven. There is a great deal of money to be made in the space industry, so it is commercially attractive to companies. However, there is definitely a need for the Government to drive progress harder and faster than is currently the case. Various activities are involved. For example, we discussed telecoms. I remember that when I first became a Member of Parliament in 1992—never mind when others first became MPs—the internet was in its infancy, and satellite television was just starting, but look at the situation now. We have a choice of 300 channels and that number will grow. It will not be long before we all hold devices that allow programmes to be beamed down to us wherever we happen to be. The excitement in the telecoms market is superb. I am delighted that Britain is at the forefront of the telecoms market, but we must continue to invest on a much larger scale if the industry is to have a future. The hon. Member for Nuneaton discussed the number of space industry jobs in this country and the fact that two thirds of them are filled by people with university degrees. That is superb, and we want to further it. I hope that the Minister will comment on the closure of physics departments in universities, the shortage of physics teachers in schools and the fact that many youngsters are not interested in physics. That worries me. We will store up trouble for the future if we do not try to correct that.